1. Field of the Invention
This invention seeks to reduce the number of terminals in an integrated circuit and the number of connection wires for external circuits by transmitting information outputs generated in the integrated circuit to external circuits with use of a reduced number of output terminals, thereby to simplify the constitution of the circuit means.
2. Description of the Prior Art
In a prior art method of transmitting the information outputs generated in an integrated circuit to an external circuit, an information output of only one kind is applied to an output terminal so that the level of one output terminal for a digital information output does not vary by one bit of a binary number. That is, it is so constructed that the level has either H or L level. Depending on the number of units of information transmitted towards the outside, the number of output terminals should be increased.
Another method is a time division method where more than two kinds of information output are applied to a single output terminal. However, since the circuit construction for separating a plurality of information out of a time division output signal becomes complicated, a lot of problems arise.